The present invention relates to oxygen-containing amorphous alloys having superior properties as ferromagnetic materials and, further, a method of preparing the same.
In the field of metallic materials, amorphous alloys containing as main constituent components elements of transition metals of Group 3d in the Periodic Table and metalloid elements, such as B or Si, have been well-known as typical ferromagnetic materials and have been greatly desired as new metallic materials because of their advantageous properties, particularly with regard to magnetic properties, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. On the other hand, there has been a growing demand for ferromagnetic transparent glass in the field of ceramics. Heretofore, various studies or attempts have been made on ferromagnetic amorphous oxides, but they are limited only to paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials. Thus, ferromagnetic amorphous oxide materials have not been successfully provided in this field.
Recently, ferromagnetic amorphous oxides were proposed in Japanese patent application Laid-Open No. 58-64264. The new ferromagnetic amorphous oxides were provided in the form of a ribbon, the ribbon being prepared by heating to melt a mixture consisting of various ferrites with a spinel structure and glassforming oxides, mainly P.sub.2 O.sub.5, and then splat cooling the molten mixture to solidify same. The saturation magnetization of the ferromagnetic amorphous oxide at room temperature is still small as compared to that of spinel ferrite and thus a more increased saturation magnetization is required for the practical uses. However, unfortunately, the preparation method proposed in the Japanese patent application can provide the ferromagnetic amorphous oxide only in an extremely limited composition range and such a limited composition range is disadvantageous to improve ferromagnetic properties.